this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
176 points (99.4% liked)

World News

49079 readers
2099 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] DevCat@lemmy.world 59 points 2 years ago (9 children)

The Gulf Stream, which currently keeps Europe warmer than it should be, could be disrupted by sudden dumping of cold fresh water from Greenland. As I understand it, the fresh water is lighter than salt water and will essentially disrupt the Gulf Stream. Previously, It was believed that if the Gulf Stream were disrupted, Europe would plunge back into the temperatures that you see at the same latitudes in North America. The equivalent latitude for Belgium would be Winnipeg, which has exceptionally cold winters.

Now, you would think perhaps this would then balance out. The problem is that the Gulf Stream dissipates heat from the equator into the northern latitudes. Heat is what drives hurricanes. With nothing dissipating heat from the equator, you have an enormous, essentially battery, to power more frequent and larger hurricanes. Now before you start saying goodbye to Florida, consider that hurricanes ride along on the Gulf Stream. With it disrupted, where are those hurricanes going to go?

This is why weather modeling is so difficult. There are way too many variables to have to account for. Go ahead, try to make a prediction for more than two-three weeks.

[–] BiNonBi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 years ago

I wouldn't compare Belgium sans Gulfstream to Winnipeg. Center of a continent vs by an ocean makes a big difference no matter the latitude. I think it would be much more fair to compare it to someplace like St. John's. It will still be colder but not to the same extent.

load more comments (8 replies)